Opera on the move

Ming Hua Yuan crew members, led by Sun Cui-feng, perform at the National Traditional Arts Center.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MING HUA YUAN

Opera can be a moving art form.

Chen Sheng-fu (陳勝福) the imaginative producer and troupe leader of the Ming Hua Yuan Taiwanese Opera (明華園戲劇團), has invited opera fans to enjoy a train journey together with some of the group's singers.

The activity, starting on Saturday, is the first of its kind in Taiwanese Opera's 100-year history and comes some 120 years after Taiwan's first locomotive train began operations.

The National Center for Traditional Arts (國立傳統藝術中心) in Lo-Tong (羅東), Ilan County (宜蘭縣), will launch a year-end Taiwanese Opera Gala that commences tonight and features daily opera shows until New Year's Day to coincide with the train ride activity.

The first of the three trains will leave Taipei Train Station at 10am tomorrow for Lo-Tong, where the center is located. During the two-hour train ride, opera fans will have the opportunity of meeting some of the troupe's opera singers in the five train carriages reserved for the journey.